Raining on Rahm’s Exit Parade

Next on Emanuel’s list of grievances against the powers that be is the Great Recession. He writes that “the nation’s banking elite had lent billions to home buyers without a realistic hope of making good on their debts. Their irresponsible lending not only precipitated a global financial meltdown, but also necessitated a bailout from the nation’s financially stressed middle-class taxpayers.”

As before, Emanuel’s analysis is correct – although once again he’s left out an important piece of the story. The Great Recession was not solely caused by Wall Street bankers behaving badly, it was also precipitated by the irresponsible policies of government-backed entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which were put in receivership in 2008 after the mortgage crisis exploded the U.S. economy. Anyone want to hazard a guess who earned $320,000 during a 14-month stint on the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac from 2000 to 2001 (also a period when the organization was rocked by scandal for understating its earnings by $5 billion in an effort to appeal to Wall Street)?